In modern era, India’s journey to leverage its soft power capital, which had begun influencing its interactions with foreign states and societies even during the colonisation phase. Intellectual and radical interactions of luminaries like Swami Vivekananda, Tagore, MN Roy signalled an intrepid internationalism in their minds. To quote Gandhi, “I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any”. As one of the few uninterrupted surviving civilisations, with its unique values and worldview, India offered new meanings to concepts like war, peace, power, religion, and similar others.
Tag: British India
The Best Books to Read at India’s 78th Independence Day
As the clock struck midnight on August 15, 1947, a new dawn broke across the Indian subcontinent. For the millions of people who had fought for decades under the colonial rule, that moment marked the culmination of a dream – a promise to self – determination, unity, and hope. The birth of a free India, announced with Jawaharlal Nehru’s stirring words, “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” signified not just political independence, but the reclamation of a long-suppressed identity. Yet, as the jubilant celebrations of that day echoed across a land still trembling from the trauma of partition, India found itself poised between freedom and fracture, between euphoria and an uncertain future.